New Light on the Old Synapse: Resident neuroscientist
takes a closer look

Perhaps its no coincidence that Holt Halls
upper level, crammed with hidden laboratories and office warrens for the
scientifically inclined, resembles a rats maze. Certainly a superior
sort of logic is required to find Professor Jonathan Days digs there,
but once located, the research scientist and human physiology professor
within turns out to be a relaxed, articulate individual reassuringly lacking
clipboard, stopwatch, or lab coat.

Day, who this spring begins his fourth semester at CSU,
Chico, is the universitys resident neuroscientist. Beginning next
fall, his teaching duties, which up until now have concentrated on enlightening
nursing, physical education, and nutrition majors on the intricacies of
vital biological functions, will include a graduate-level course in neuroscience.
Hes also lead author of a paper recently submitted to Nature Neuroscience
titled Calcineurin Expression Increases Following Hippocampal Lesion:
One of Seven Markers of Synaptogenesis. It represents five years
of research into congruent regeneration and offers interesting evidence
that should prove helpful in understanding and combating diseases such
as Alzheimers and Parkinsons, whose symptoms occur after substantial
neuron loss.

Theres a naturally occurring mechanism that
takes place when synaptic connections die, explained Day. What
happens is another neuron will make an additional connection to replace
the missing one. Its called synaptogenesis. And thats actually
the process we study. Were interested in what kind of molecular
signals, often an increased presence of genes such as calcineurin, control
this synaptogenetic response. We know that this process takes place in
brains undergoing Alzheimers or Parkinsons diseases. We know
it takes place in brains damaged by trauma or subjected to some sort of
toxic insult. What wed like to be able to do is say to someone suffering
this type of nerve damage, What you need over here are some more
synapses; heres something that will make you more.

That something could quite possibly be a
group of naturally occurring and synthetic compounds that mimic the action
of neurotransmitters, the chemical messengers that send signals from one
nerve cell to the next. For instance, Parkinsons patients given
L-Dopa, a precursor to the neurotransmitter dopamine, notice an alleviation
of their symptoms. Glutamate serves much the same function with Alzheimers
symptoms, but since too much of it induces seizure, it cant be used
to treat patients. Days study of the molecular markers
that are present during synaptogenesis represents a possible avenue for
determining where the process is taking place, and treating it, well before
the degenerative symptoms of nerve-related diseases manifest.

Funding for his research comes primarily from the National
Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. NIH oversees
a small pot of government money known as Academic Research
Enhancement Awards, which it doles out to qualifying undergraduate universities
such as CSU, Chico. The National Science Foundations Research for
Undergraduate Institutions grants offer similar funds.

These institutions feel that in order to get good
graduate students and researchers, they have to start at the undergraduate
level, at schools like this, observed Day. Theres an
interest in making sure these kids have an opportunity to do research
at a competitive level and see whether they have a taste for it. So we
design experiments and keep our level of research effort focused on things
students can do in a laboratory. We use some very classical and basic
techniques to look at these questions.

Before coming here, and bringing along his laboratorys
worth of reconditioned equipment that Chico State purchased, Day spent
seven years as an assistant professor at Penn State, serving half his
time in the biology department and the rest as an assistant director for
the universitys gerontology center. He earned his Ph.D. at the University
of Maryland, where his study of neurohormones focused on the semilunar
spawning cycle of an inner-tidal minnow known as Fundulus heteroclitus.

Chico States been good to him, he
said, and pursuing his research at a university not particularly known
for it doesnt bother him in the least.

Just about everybody on the faculty does some
kind of research, he commented, and most do it out of inclination
rather than obligation.}